The Eight Dimensions of Wellness

When those who are suffering from substance abuse make the eight dimensions of wellness a part of their life’s daily routine, it’s possible to see an improvement in their physical and mental health. To experience wellness, one must be in a good place mentally and physically. Because there’s a link between physical and mental health, if there’s a problem with one, the other will experience an impact. Therefore, when you improve your mental health, it’s beneficial to your physical health, and vice versa. It’s critical that you’re making healthy choices both for your mental and physical well-being.

It’s critical for you to remember that when you’re well, it doesn’t mean there’s an absence of stress or illness. It’s possible for those who are suffering from addiction to strive for wellness despite the challenges that are going on throughout your life. In this blog we are going to look at the eight dimensions of wellness to help achieve that goal.

The Eight Dimensions of Wellness

1: Emotional: When you can create satisfying relationships and cope effectively with life, you’re experiencing emotional wellness. You feel in control of your feelings, confident, can control your behaviors, and can handle the challenges occurring throughout life. You’re able to understand that you can build resiliency by working through life challenges and learn that it’s possible to overcome setbacks. You can achieve emotional health by regularly engaging in recreational and leisure activities. It’s essential that these activities focus on each of your senses including taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound.

2: Environmental: When you occupy a stimulating and pleasant environment that’s supportive of your well-being, you’re achieving environmental wellness. The health of your environment is in direct connection to this dimension of your overall health and well-being. How you feel is significantly impacted by your environment, both your natural and social surroundings. If you feel unsafe in your environment, or if you surround yourself with disorganization or clutter, it’s difficult to feel good. Some of the factors affecting environmental wellness include garbage build-up, pollution, water conservation, and violence. You can manage environmental wellness by planting a community or personal garden, conserving energy, recycling, creating a neighborhood watch, or purchasing products with minimal packaging.

3: Financial: When you find satisfaction with your current or future financial situations, you’re experiencing financial wellness. Because finances are a common point of stress for many individuals, minimizing worries about this aspect of your life could create an enhancement for your wellness overall. You can achieve this goal by beginning a savings account, developing a household budget, establishing an emergency account, shopping at thrift stores, cutting out or limiting unnecessary expenses, limiting or cutting out credit card debt, cooking at home more often, using your local library, and donating to charities. Try setting goals by tracking your spending for one month.

4: Intellectual: When you find ways to expand skills and knowledge and recognize your creative abilities, you’re achieving intellectual wellness. By participating in activities that will cultivate your growth mentally, you’re fostering your intellectual wellness. Trying a new hobby, reading, learning a new language, doing challenging puzzles, learning a new instrument, teaching or tutoring, or debating issues are all ways of maintaining or improving your intellectual wellness. By challenging yourself to learn these new skills, you’re building your health intellectually. When you give your intellectual health the attention it deserves, you’ll find that you have better critical thinking skills, improvement to your concentration, and better memory retention.

5: Occupational: When you find enrichment and personal satisfaction in your work, you’re experiencing occupational wellness. When you can balance your leisure and work time, while simultaneously building relationships with coworkers and managing stress in your workplace, you’re achieving occupational wellness. One way to accomplish this goal is by finding work that is not only financially rewarding but also meaningful to you. When you find work that fits your skills, interests, and values, this can better support and maintain your goals for occupational wellness. Consider the culture of your current workplace and determine if you feel supported. If you discover there’s a lack of support, it’s essential that you seek the support from others from whom you feel close and engage in positive activities that help you achieve a balance between work stress and leisure time.

6: Physical: When you recognize your need for healthy foods, physical activity, and adequate sleep, you’re achieving physical wellness. There is a myriad of physical activities ranging from light to vigorous levels of intensity. You can maintain your physical health by running, engaging in sports, practicing yoga, gardening, jogging, walking, playing tennis, dancing, skiing, jumping rope, and bike riding. It isn’t uncommon for individuals to use smoking as a mechanism for coping. However, some physical health problems can result when using this method of dealing, including cancer and heart disease. Smoking can also increase an individual’s chances of experiencing premature death. SAMHSA indicates that there’s a relationship between smoking-related illnesses and half of the deaths for individuals receiving a diagnosis for a behavioral health condition.

7: Social: When you can create a well-developed support system in addition to a sense of belonging and connection, you’ve achieved social wellness. When you can create and maintain a support network that’s healthy, you’re actively maintaining social wellness. You can cultivate this dimension by setting healthy boundaries, joining a club or organization, using good communication skills that are not passive aggressive, asking acquaintances or colleagues to lunch, being authentic and genuine to others, and being respectful to others.

8: Spiritual: When you can find the purpose and meaning in your life by expanding upon your beliefs and values, you’re achieving spiritual wellness. You may be achieving this goal by participating in activities including meditation, volunteering, spending time in nature, or self-reflection. When you have strong spiritual wellness, you’ll experience a sense of self-confidence, clear values, and feelings of inner peace. It’s possible to make improvements to your spiritual wellness by developing a place of playfulness and curiosity or creating a quiet place of contemplation and solitude. When you maintain a curious and playful attitude, it’s possible to find opportunities offering purpose, meaning, and hope.

Do You Know Someone Suffering from Addiction?

If you or someone you know is suffering from addiction, you can receive rehabilitation services from our specialists at Arizona Addiction Recovery Center. Not only will we work with you toward achieving your sobriety goals, but we will stay committed to helping you develop the most optimal treatment plan to get you through your recovery.